About Andrew Forrest

Andrew Forrest was born in Cromford, Derbyshire in 1945.
He attended schools in Somerset and in Devon.
Subsequently he studied Natural Sciences at Trinity Hall, Cambridge from 1963-66 obtaining a Master’s Degree.

From the age of seven he started studies in music, starting with the piano then the clarinet before settling on his favourite, the classical guitar, on which he was largely self taught.

He has performed and taught the guitar throughout England since the early 1960's and has given numerous recitals. In 1975, he moved to work as a peripatetic teacher with North Yorkshire in schools and colleges, working with both individuals and ensembles varying in size from two to forty guitars. Since there was a shortage of suitable material available for his guitar groups, he developed his arranging and compositional skills to produce many solos, duets, trios and larger ensemble pieces.

He worked for North Yorkshire County Music Service for over 30 years, proving to be a successful teacher as well as guitar ensemble director. His Schools Guitar Ensemble won National Guitar Competitions twice - each time that they have entered. A work for Guitar Orchestra also won a prize at the Dewsbury National Guitar Competition for best composition/arrangement. He has five times been the Guitar Examiner at Harrogate Competitive Music Festival in more recent years, adjudicating both solo and ensemble performances.

He is a member of York Guitar Quartet which has been performing many of his quartet arrangements in the North of England since 1980.
Several of these arrangements have been recorded by the York Guitar Quartet and also many other ensembles throughout the world.
Their first album, On the Overgrown Path, includes many arrangements of music from Eastern Europe, including Bartók, Stravinsky and Janacek.
The second album, Elegy, is mainly original work by members of the quartet.
The latest is called Landscape With Trees - works by Astor Piazzolla, Lili Boulanger, Haralabos Stafylakis, François Poulenc, Peter Byrom-Smith and more.

Samples can be listened to by clicking the links below.

All are available from Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.